NY YANKEES: 2017: 91-71, second place, wild card, lost to Houston in ALCS.
MANAGER: Aaron Boone (first season).
ADDITIONS: OF Giancarlo Stanton, 2B Neil Walker, 3B Brandon Drury.
SUBTRACTIONS: Manager Joe Girardi, 2B Starlin Castro, 3B-1B Chase Headley, 3B Todd Frazier, DH Matt Holliday, LHP Jaime Garcia.
OUTLOOK: New York figures to score a lot and strike out a lot, a reason the Yankees signed the switch-hitting, high-contact Walker during spring training. Drury also was a late addition, enabling New York to start prospects Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andujar in the minors. Betances faded in the second half last season, struggling with his mechanics and control and diminishing from a four-time All-Star to a mop-up man. After a pair of injury-decimated seasons, Bird is being counted on as a left-handed power bat in the middle of the batting order who can prevent opponents from bringing in right-handed relievers to attack Judge, Stanton and Sanchez. Hicks missed nearly half of last season with oblique injuries but has displaced Jacoby Ellsbury as the regular center fielder. Having never managed or coached at any level, Boone succeeded Girardi and must establish with players and the public that he knows what he is doing.

TAMPA BAY: 017: 80-82, third place.
MANAGER: Kevin Cash (fourth season).
ADDITIONS: OF Denard Span, 1B C.J. Cron, RHP Nathan Eovaldi, OF Jake Bauers.
SUBTRACTIONS: 3B Evan Longoria, RHP Alex Cobb, RHP Jake Odorizzi, OF-DH Corey Dickerson, OF Steven Souza Jr., 1B Logan Morrison, 1B-DH Lucas Duda, RHP Brad Boxberger, RHP Steve Cishek, RHP Tommy Hunter, OF Peter Bourjos, INF Trever Plouffe, RHP Chase Whitley.
OUTLOOK: The Rays sport a new look after a winter of trimming payroll. In addition to the departures of Cobb and Odorizzi, the heart of a batting order that hit a club-record 228 homers ' Longoria, Dickerson, Souza and Morrison ' is gone, too. Archer, a two-time All-Star, is set to make his franchise-record fourth opening day start, and Colome is back at closer, too. The question that remains unanswered is, for how long? Cash and general manager Erik Neander aren't making any bold predictions but they insist that despite all the changes, the Rays have a chance to be a lot more competitive than it appears on paper.

PREVIEW

Yankees face Rays looking to bolster wild card lead

On a night the longshot dream of the Tampa Bay Rays came to an end, the New York Yankees made as much news off the field than they did during the game.

The Yankees used eight different pitchers in a 4-1 victory that eliminated the Rays from postseason contention. But it was other Yankees developments that made the real headlines.

First of all, New York, with manager Aaron Boone continuing to deflect all questions regarding his wild card game starter, pushed Luis Severino back to Tuesday night's second game of the series, going with a complete Rays-type bullpen game Monday.

The win, the Yankees' 96th of the season, kept the Yankees 1 1/2 games ahead of the winning Oakland A's for home field in the wild card game. The Yankees own the tiebreaker with Oakland by virtue of a better divisional record.

Then, Didi Gregorius, who might have been lost for the season with torn cartilage in his right wrist, reported improvement and vowed he will play again this season.

"I feel way better," said Gregorius, who was given a cortisone injection Sunday. "It's a big improvement from yesterday to today. I'm feeling stronger. I'll get some exercises in and wait to see what's going to happen. ... I said the same thing yesterday; I said I'll be ready to go before the season ends."

Said Boone: "He felt significantly better obviously with some of the range of motion things he's able to do. I would also temper it. The true indicator will come Wednesday when he's re-evaluated, and we see how he does."

During the game, Aaron Hicks, who fouled a ball off his foot Saturday before getting the hit that led to Gregorius' injury diving into home plate, left with left hamstring tightness. "Hopefully it's nothing serious," said Boone, who added Hicks will have a precautionary MRI Tuesday.

Brett Gardner, who replaced Hicks in centerfield, drove in the go-ahead run and then made a spectacular catch to keep his team ahead.

The Yankees, winning for only the second time in seven games at the Trop this season (10-18 over their last 28 there), went with the bullpen game to give their starters an extra day of rest, but Boone said nothing should be read into anything when it comes to the wild card game.

"I think a lot of people have read too much into how Happ is set up right now," Boone said. "Happ is very much in the picture as a possibility for us and one of those good choices ... but how it lines up right now isn't by design or anything."

The Rays will go with reliever Jake Faria to at least start Tuesday night's game, not as an "opener" but expected to give way to Jalen Beeks at some point.

Tampa Bay came out of nowhere to make a bit of a late run at the A's but just ran out of time.

Tampa manager Kevin Cash, asked about the Yankees' parade of relievers (two hits, 13 strikeouts), said, "I don't think it's fair for them to call it a bullpen day. It's more like a closer day because they all just kind of come in there and they've all got ... closing? It's wipeout stuff from the second that (Chad) Green steps on the mound and out, they're very special."

Zach Britton pitched the ninth for the save and is showing real signs of returning to his dominating days as an Orioles.

Kevin Kiermaier was out of the Tampa lineup with a shoulder injury and catcher Nick Ciuffo left with a bruised hand.

Severino is 7-2 with a 3.06 ERA lifetime against the Rays, 2-1 with a 3.43 in St. Petersburg. He is 2-1 against Tampa Bay this season but was strafed by the Rays in July.

Mallex Smith is 3-for-10 (.300) against Severino, but both Jesus Sucre and Joey Wendle are 1-for-9 (.111) and Kiermaier is 3-for-23 (.130).